Welcome to the AB Forum

I would like to know how departments are maintaining their synthetic turf rectangle fields. These would be fields heavily used by the community athletic groups. What type of broom or equipment are you using to groom the fields and how often? What equipment are you using to remove debris from the field and how often are you doing this task? How much infill are you adding to the field? How are the fields holding up and do they look like they will last 10 years with out major work? Are there any unexpected issues you have to deal with?

Phil - typically in a bid for synthetic turf, you will include a piece of maintenance equipment to groom the field. There are several good manufacturers on the market and I would recommend that you spec the machine vs. letting each manufacturer choose the one they will include as the quality will vary dramatically. Most of the turf companies seem to recommend that you groom a field approx. every 60 hours of play although it will depend on the manufacturer and the type of fiber you will be installing. Typically an all-rubber field will be a brush system and a sand/rubber field will use a groomer with tines. It is difficult to gauge how much rubber infill you will need to replace on a field because there are a lot of variables, but there is an article from STMA that recommends 1 time/year, 10 tons of topdressing (It's an article on comparing the cost of natural grass to synthetic found on their website). Not only do you need to be concerned with grooming, it is also recommended that you pull a magnet bar over the field on a regular basis to capture bobby pins, bottle caps or any other materials that damage the field or injure a player.